Tag: marketing strategy

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Digital Marketing

First-Party Data and Your Marketing Strategy

First-party data, collected directly from your audience, is vital for an effective marketing strategy. Unlike third-party data, it offers deeper insights into customer preferences and behavior, ensuring more personalized and targeted campaigns. With increasing privacy regulations and cookie deprecation, first-party data becomes even more crucial, enabling businesses to build trust and deliver relevant content while respecting user privacy. Its strategic use can significantly enhance customer engagement and loyalty.

As a marketer, the customer data you have is as good as gold. There are several ways to collect data with internal and external sources.

The most common data sources are from first party and third party. First-party data is essentially you are data because it is the information you collect directly from your website and or your customers. Third-party data, on the other hand, comes from other sources aggregated across a variety of sources.

Because of changes required by the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, the future of third-party data is uncertain. Combine this with the fact that Safari and Firefox have made cookies from third parties blocked by default and Google has announced that it will no longer support third party cookies by 2022, there are concerns about how marketers will continue to operate.

Under the GDPR, companies are required to inform consumers about the data they’re collecting and how they intend to use it as well as with whom they intend to share it. Because of this change, there are concerns that we may see the end of third-party data as we know it.

What This Means for Marketers

Because of the changes surrounding third-party data, now is the perfect time to rethink your marketing strategy and use first-party data as much as possible. If your website is already using a remarketing pixel for your various media platforms, then you’re off to a good start. Remarketing pixels are considered first-party data because they capture the user’s behavior and activity while they’re on your website.

If you’re using customer relationship management (CRM) software to help manage your customer information, then you likely have information about your customer’s past purchases and other interactions with your business. When you use that information properly, you can leverage your remarketing audiences and CRM data to create highly targeted marketing lists that engage site visitors and packed customers.

Research shows that marketers are increasingly prioritizing first-party data as a result of these changes. 39% of retailers are asking for data directly, while 27% are recording more observed data. If your company isn’t making an effort to collect data directly from your customers and relying completely on third-party data, your marketing strategy could lead to company collapse as more legislation comes in to help consumers protect their privacy and their data.

Making the Most of First-Party Data in Your Marketing Strategy

As the major corporations continue to drive consumer acquisition cost up, profitability decreases for those who can’t compete. That’s why it’s important to build strong data Driven customer relationships. First-party data makes it easier to personalize the experience which is something consumers expect in today’s e-commerce industry. Research shows that 56% of people are more likely to purchase from a brand that recognizes them by name let alone one the personalized has the entire shopping experience.

Use Upsells and Cross-Sells

After a visitor converts, use the CRM data to determine complementary products they could be interested in. For instance, if your customer buys a swimsuit, follow up with ads to sell them a swim cover-up, beach towel, or beach/water shoes.

Use Lookalikes and Similar Audiences

Leverage Google and Facebook for their ability to build new audiences based on your first-party data. This is a great way to extend your reach and find users who are like your current customers.  Facebook launched custom audiences to improve their ad targeting and it has been an essential tool for retargeting and prospecting across a shopper’s purchase journey. Email match rates on Facebook typically fall between 40 and 60%, but if you segment well enough, you can get that number closer to 70 and 80%. And since Google has launched Similar Audiences, advertisers now have the ability to refine their current targeting efforts and expand prospecting campaigns to find new customers.

Best results, focus on your highest value customers and reverse-engineer a customer acquisition and retention strategy by using tools such as smart bidding, similar audiences, and remarketing lists for search ads.

Re-Engage Seasonal Shoppers

If you have a set of customers who only make purchases during a certain time of year such as the summer of the holidays, that’s perfectly fine. Create lists for these customers and ramp up your marketing efforts during that time of year as their most likely to convert. Also, think about whether or not there are other holidays are promotional events that you can use to re-engage the visitors.

Add Video

Video advertising is becoming increasingly popular and it’s a wonderful way to reach your audience. Think about using a sequential messaging strategy to build a story and keep users interested in your brand.

Use Cart Abandonment Reminders

Knowing what your customer is like gives you an idea of what products to show them. Start with what they’ve liked enough to add to their carts. It’s crucial to master your cart abandonment messages because the overwhelming majority of online shopping carts are abandoned. Research shows that 40% of the internet’s abandoned shopping carts are filled with clothes.

Cart abandonment is a behavioral trigger but there are also merchandising triggers. For instance, if a customer that was looking up a jacket that’s since been marked down, you should let them know. The trigger message could help you convert someone to a customer.

Add Direct Mail to Your Strategy

Although some marketers view direct mail as an outdated advertising channel, direct mail does offer an offline advantage that’s good for win back messaging. Mailboxes often have less clutter and distraction than email inboxes. But, for it to be effective you have to do it correctly. Using the spray and pray approach ultimately waste paper and postage. But, if you rely on your digital data to inform your offline campaign, you can use the same personalization that people have come to expect online.

It’s true first-party data may not offer as much opportunity to scale your marketing efforts as a third-party data. However, there’s still plenty of potential to use the first-party data to increase your revenue and improve return on investment. Put your customer data and insights to good used to refine your strategies for Acquisition, retention, and remarketing.

 

 

Categories
Social Media

Developing a Social Media Approval Process for Your Organization

Managing social media for your department, organization or for individual clients can be stressful. This is especially true if there is a team involved in the process. Each stakeholder may have different expectations for social media posts, and it’s imperative that everyone is on the same page in order to avoid problems such as misunderstandings or even damage to reputation. Fortunately, there are some processes you can put in place and tools you can use to help streamline communication. Keep reading below to discover some tips for developing a social media approval process for your organization.

Create a Strategy

Before you can establish an approval process for social media posts, you’ll first need to implement some other procedures so that everyone involved knows their role. First, clarify who is responsible for creating posts and for which client. If there are multiple people working on a particular campaign, determine a command chain of who does what and who is ultimately responsible for final approval. Laying all of this out ahead of time eliminates confusion and ensure each individual understands their responsibilities.

It can help to have your entire social media team, from graphic designers to social media specialist, meet with clients so that everyone has a personal understanding of the brand. Having guidelines readily available for such things as logo placement, hashtag use and prohibited language is also important to ready approval of social media posts. Deadlines should be established, as well. When do key organization and client team members need to receive content for approval? Setting expected deadlines will allow your team to work efficiently and stay on track.

Finally, you should have a social media crisis management procedure in place. Identifying a crisis and having standard practices in place for dealing with such issues will also ease the approval process and help to make sure things don’t get out of hand. Everyone on both the organization and client side should have access to this information.

Choose Your Tools

The next part of developing a social media approval process for your organization is to choose the tools you’ll need to help you in this endeavor. Exchanging endless emails and memos simply isn’t an efficient way of communication, especially when there are multiple team members to consult and deadlines to meet. Fortunately, there are a number of resources that can help to automate this process and keep everyone in the loop with regard to communication. Some are paid, while others are free. Finding a solution that works for your team will be a personal endeavor, but there are some things that can help you choose wisely.

Handling your social media workflow requires you to keep track of necessary information like policies and procedures, maintain efficient and timely communication and share assets. Sometimes, you will need more than one app or tool to do the job. Many programs will work together seamlessly and can be integrated to perform various tasks.

A tool like Airtable can help you create a place where you and your team can keep general information. Other popular resources include CoSchedule, SmarterQueue and Sprout Social. Examples of things you might keep track of in these programs include keywords research, frequently used links, documents, assets, images and team member information. These types of tools create spreads and forms that make submitting and sharing information among the team easy. They can be readily customized to meet your team’s exact needs. Having a place where everyone can view content and preparation materials eases the social media approval process tremendously.

Some social media management tools such as Agorapulse allow for real-team collaboration and possess other helpful features that make obtaining social media approval much more efficient. You can schedule content for approval ahead of time and then forget it, in many cases. These types of programs let you send posts for approval to the required team member and set things up so that they can even move through multiple individuals.

Finally, the tool you choose should be able to handle a comprehensive workflow. Aspects to consider include information storage, team involvement, content creation, approval procedures and reporting. You may need to use more than one app or program to achieve your desired results. The more streamlined you can make the process, the better. Paid tools or upgrades are often necessary to achieve the results you desire.

Team Collaboration

The last part of the process streamlining social media approval for your team is to be sure everyone is onboard and understands the process, as well as gaining knowledge of the tools everyone will use in order to perform their duties effectively. This means you’ll need to implement comprehensive training for everyone involved, both within your organization and with outside stakeholders.

Team members should be aware of the client’s backstory and brand. This helps everyone to use a consistent voice when creating posts. They must also understand branding style such as colors, fonts, graphics and logos. Any other client-specific guidelines should be communicated at these meetings, such as wording to avoid. Teaching everyone what is to be expected will save time and frustration later, making the approval process much more seamless.

Next, you’ll need to bring everyone on board with regard to the use of the tools you’ve chosen for team collaboration. Some individuals may be more resistant to learning new methods than others. Emphasize the importance of working together with a tool that keeps everyone in the loop will make each person’s job easier. It will also increase the odds of achieving better results for the client when strategies are put in place to improve the communication processes.

Take time to make sure everyone has a clear understanding of the tools and how they are to be used. This may mean scheduling several social media training sessions or breaking things up by department. You’ll also want to share practical examples of how individuals will use the tools in order to make the experience more relevant and easier to understand. Your team members will be more likely to embrace new tools if they feel a personal relevance and connection to them.

Developing a social media approval process for your organization does require a great deal of research and time investment, but it doesn’t have to be difficult. In the end, you’ll discover your job is much easier and the results you achieve will be far superior than before.

Categories
Social Media

10 Ways to Use Twitter Lists to Strategize

I’m not really sure why Twitter lists seem to fall into the “secret squirrel” category. A lot of casual Twitter users don’t even realize they can create lists. And business owners? You’re definitely missing out if you’re not using them.

Why? They are an incredible curation tool. You can use them to follow specific audience segments, stalk your competitors, sort through industry news, and so much more.

Organization is Key

Hitting that follow button on Twitter is easy. Scrolling the resulting feed of updates isn’t always as enjoyable — especially if it contains an eclectic mix of personal updates, news, and guru or expert content. Creating separate lists and filtering the people you’re following into segments makes it easy to find the info you need when you want it.

You can spend some time monitoring the news or you can dedicate an hour to interacting with potential fans and customers. All you have to do is go directly to the list you want to see, automatically filtering out all of the extra “noise” from sponsored posts and irrelevant social shares.

Follow Colleagues and Brand Partners

Create a private list that includes all of your co-workers, vendors, and brand partners. Doing so will ensure you are able to quickly and easily keep track of what those closely associated with your brand are saying online. You’ll be able to quickly and easily identify any issues with the online personalities most closely identifying with your organization.

Not everything you see will actually be about your company. Sometimes people just don’t realize that their association with your brand (especially if they list your company name as an employer) can create a PR disaster./ All it takes is a single snafu within their personal lives to turn everything upside down. This list will help you to nip employee attitudes in the bud, ask your CEO to tone down their political rants, or handle any weird or random issues that come up.

Create a Directory

Want to make it easy for your customers and fans to find your customer support team on Twitter? Create a public list with a collection of their branded Twitter usernames. Fans should be able to find general support, billing, and sales contacts in this sort of directory.

You can also create fun lists for your fans. These public lists could just be general social fun, industry tips and tricks, and anything else fun your staff may want to contribute or add. Remember, these things will still appear in your feed among your regular posts, but your fans will be able to filter to the content they want to see, too. It’s a win-win situation, especially when it comes to entertaining your followers.

Track Customers Separately

Social listening is key to success in the online world. Keep a separate list of people who have made purchases from you. You’ll either be able to search them by their email addresses or you’ll be able to identify them as you search hashtags and mentions of your own business.

Following your actual customers separately will help you to build closer relationships. You’ll be able to participate in conversations and stay on their mind, building a foundation for repeat business. You may even find some of your customers are great influencers for future campaigns.

Track Your Twitter Chats

Are you running a regular Twitter chat? If not, that’s a conversation for another day, but you’re definitely missing out on opportunities to grow your brand. If so, add the people who regularly participate in your chats to a list so you can continue interacting and keep the conversation going.

People You’re Interested In

Seeing people you’d like to build relationships with at some point? Create a separate list just for your “rising stars.” Give it a cool name so people realize they’ve been added to your list but don’t necessarily know they’re prospects. Then make sure you are interacting and engaging, getting to know each other, and making yourself visible.

Sharing is Caring

Do you have a core group of people who regularly retweet your content? Put them into a separate list so you can share the love. Don’t share their content without thought, but occasionally seek out gems you can retweet in return as thanks. Twitter is about engagement and networking — not one-sided relationships.

Event Lists

Are you holding a special event? A dedicated public list with people who are participating in an event is a great way to connect everyone in advance. Include the hosts, vendors, speakers, and attendees so everyone involved can get to know each other in advance.

While this list will prove helpful in connecting people, it will show all of the participant posts — not just event posts. Be sure to create a couple of event-specific hashtags everyone can use during the event. That way you can curate any missed content later on.

Useful Resource Lists

Are your clients constantly asking you about the resources you go to for information on related niches, for supplies, or for a more broader view of your industry? Build a public resource list where you share accounts owned by businesses or partners you find particularly useful.

Make sure you are monitoring this list regularly to ensure the brands and experts you are promoting aren’t saying things that are misaligned with your core values. This is important for maintaining your brand’s image and overall marketing strategy.

Follow Other Lists

You don’t need to create your own lists to gain benefit from them. Look for lists that have been curated by other Twitter users. A lot of people are really great a curating amazing content, even if the list creators themselves aren’t experts in the field.

Twitter can be a fast-paced platform that’s difficult to keep up with from the main homepage. A list strategy is a very effective way to organize the people you want to stay in touch with, engage potential new fans, and offer valuable tools to your audience. What unique ways have you found to utilize Twitter lists in your business? Leave a comment and let me know.

 

Categories
Digital Marketing

10 Important Digital Marketing Strategy Statistics for 2018

Are you prepared for this year’s new digital marketing environment? Whether you’re sure you have your strategy locked down or you’re still trying to find the best approach, shaping campaigns always starts with knowledge. The more you know about what you’re up against, the better you can react to it and adapt.

Make the most of the coming year with this list of 10 critical marketing strategy statistics. From what matters the most in terms of specs to special new strategies you should consider, this list has a little something for everyone.

Mobile Pages Must be Fast

Google recently announced algorithm changes that make mobile page speed a significant ranking factor. If you haven’t yet mobile optimized your website, or if your mobile port is poorly optimized, your page loading speed may suffer as a result.

Just how fast is fast enough? This article claims that mobile websites with a loading time of 3 seconds or less enjoy bounce rates nearly four times lower than sites that take up to 10 seconds to load. If you’re closer to the long end of this spectrum, reassess your elements and media to see if there’s anything you can trim back.

Start Ranking for Voice Search

WordStream claims that 50 percent of all searches will be voice searches by 2020. Think that’s too far in the distant future? It’s actually just a year and a half away, meaning you should start laying out a path to optimize for voice search results now, rather than waiting.

You can improve your voice search ranking by targeting common conversational phrases people commonly ask, like “Find me the telephone number for Red Lobster,” or “Where is the nearest library?”

Increase Your Average Content Length

Long-form content is becoming longer once again. What originally started as a preference for 500-word articles quickly moved to 750 words, then 900 words, then 1,000 words. This year, some resources are showing the best average content length for conversions to be around 1,800 words.

Be prepared to include more of this long-form content, but don’t forget to swap in shorter, snappier pieces, especially for social media and mobile sharing campaigns. The goal is always to strike a balance and keep it useful.

Shopping Cart Reminders Work

Experian, a big data analysis company, recently held a study on whether or not shopping cart reminders (emails letting shoppers know they didn’t complete their purchase) work. They found that shoppers who received at least two to three emails were 2.4 times more likely to follow through by coming back to the site and processing the payment.

Our recommendations here are to make shopping cart reminders a part of your e-commerce infrastructure, but be cautious about sending emails too often. Reminders that happen more than once a day may be perceived as spammy.

LinkedIn is Growing in Popularity

Is your B2B business on LinkedIn yet? Are you making LinkedIn a significant part of your marketing campaign? If the answer is no, or if you aren’t focusing on the platform, you may be missing out. The Content Marketing Institute reports that 94 percent of all B2B businesses now use LinkedIn. When they do, they greatly improve trust for consumers if they approach it right.

InfoGraphics are Still Relevant

Infographics can be incredibly useful because they present a significant amount of data in an easily digested format. This is especially true in technical industries and B2B marketing, where statistics and terms may be the norm. Perhaps that’s why Jesse Mawhinney from HubSpot is reporting that utilization of infographics is up by nearly eight percent since last year alone. Mawhinney also claims that infographics are better at directing people to take specific information-driven actions, like signing up or buying a service.

Google is Still King

There’s a lot of buzz around other search engines right now, including Bing and some device-specific search engines. You should at least consider Bing in your campaigns, but in all reality, Google remains king. They’re still responsible for channeling through 96 percent of all smartphone searches and around 94 percent of all organic traffic. This includes voice search, text search, and image search to the tune of 63,000 searches every single minute.

Long-Tail Search Targeting Improves Conversions

Do you target long-tail and semantic search phrases? If you haven’t yet made this a part of your SEO plan, now is the time. This HubSpot article claims that 50 percent of all searches now contain a minimum of four words (and sometimes more). This means the old methods of using a single keyword just aren’t as effective anymore.

The best way to implement long-tail and semantics is to target phrases people actually use when searching Google. Head on over to the search bar; start typing a few related keywords. Watch the suggestions that pop up – they’re hints to help you along on your way.

Promotional Ads Can Result in Penalties

Running a  network of websites with newsletters for ad revenue? There’s a frightening new statistic you need to know. Google is taking a firmer hand against sites that over-use promotional ads and links on-page, especially on mobile. The new rules show that any ads or promotions, including interstitials, banners, and pop-unders, should take up no more than 15 percent of a web page.

Worried about pop-ups for language selection or location – or maybe GDPR warnings and cookie clarifications? Don’t be. Google has clarified that these forms of interstitials will be held sacred and indemnified from penalties.

Business Responses on Social Media Help

Do you respond to your consumers (B2B, B2C, or even P2P) on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter? If you don’t, you’re missing out on a significant opportunity to lock in more conversions. Sprout Social reports that acknowledgment significantly increases brand appreciation, especially when businesses respond publicly.

Simple acknowledgement helps, but it isn’t always enough – you need to respond quickly, too. The same research showed that customers want to be responded to in four hours at the most, meaning it may be time to evaluate off-hours support agents.

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